Jul 04 2010

The Rock Star’s Hollow Gazette, Pt. 1: Eight Fables About Action, Inaction, and Distraction

If I’m part of a problem, but not part of the problem, then it’s not really your problem.

-Keir DuBois

For many years now, I’ve forgotten my dreams-if I ever remember at all. Reality wants my attention more often, so I always come when she calls, and I’m getting used to the pull of routine and the comfort of my fatal flaws. Cause I never really found Boredom attractive, but she won’t stop flirting with me. She don’t understand that I can’t reprimand her for such innocent flattery, and I used to think I could hold out forever-but she’s circling patiently. For many years now, I’ve forgotten the fear-but now I remember it all. The nerves and the pressure of one good impression are making my confidence crawl, cause I’ve got a date with Ambition tonight but she’s not returning my calls.

Note:: Couldn’t get the tunes to display/play as they do on DKos, so you guys just get little links. Sorry.

Listen to “Fatal Flaws” by Honey White

Get busy bringing out the cheap tequila. It’s awful, but I just can’t put it down. Here comes another drinking song, but I can’t help myself-lately the hangovers and hang-ups hang around, and suffer like a half-assed work of fiction within the steady grip of epic funk. If talent jumps a generation, here it skipped them all-as if it’s easier to deal with it drunk, and sing one last hallelujah before we say good night. The liquor’s flowing all over creation, and even though by now it’s way too late, I’ll have a little rum and honey, you can nurse your gin-and we’ll pretend to finally set the record straight, cause your attention span’s a starving artist, and it’s high time you finally did some good. Who do you think you are now, honey? What do you take me for? Get off the cross-it’s cold, we need the firewood. And if you’re going back to town alone, you better keep your halo out of sight, and sing one last hallelujah before you say good night.

Listen to “One Last Hallelujah” by Honey White

Survival on the naked truth has saved another boring youth from having any bit of fun, or getting close to anyone-and by the time I bought the myth an amateur could deal with, I heard the luck was running out for everybody anyhow. Come on love-forget about the pressure and the fear, cause we can’t afford to waste another year. It used to mean the world to me, but chasing down elusive dreams and second-guessing everything is so unhealthy, mon ami. Come on love-forget about the pressure and the fear, cause we can’t afford to waste another year. Here we come now, here we come-so unprofessional to some-but we know better, we know best, and we’ll endure nevertheless. Come on love-forget about the pressure and the fear, cause we can’t afford to waste another year.

Listen to “Unprofessional” by Honey White

Too lazy if I work, too nervous if I steal. Too heavy if I hurt, too harmless if I heal. Too smart to waste the effort, too stupid to appeal to anyone too superficially unreal. So please have mercy on me-I don’t know what I want to be. Too many hours later, too much is still the same. Too close to losing everything and too scared to play the game. Too good to get the credit for taking all the blame, and too thirsty for the glory to feel any shame. So please have mercy on me-I don’t know what I want to be. Too noisy on location, too quiet on the set to notice if I might deserve exactly what I get. Too casual in theory to really break a sweat, and too busy at the moment to care about that yet. The choice ain’t ever up to me, and it’s not the life I want to lead, so please have mercy on me-I don’t know what I want to be.

Listen to “Mercy Rule” by Honey White

A few weeks into summer, and I’ve yet to see the sun illuminating anything the way I want it done. It’s not for lack of trying, and not for lack of fun, but I got tangled up beneath the losers and the lost-ripping into frenzy just to get the point across, and desperate to win it all no matter what the cost. If only you could see me now. If only you could see me now. I knew what I was doing-I knew it all along. I knew when not to worry all about the right or wrong of ending up anonymous and dying to belong. If only you could see me now.  If only you could see me now. Don’t know if it’ll ever be enough for anyone to believe me when I promise that I’ve only just begun to keep myself from sinking into sweet oblivion. If only you could see me now. If only you could see me now.

Listen to “Sweet Oblivion” by Honey White

Somehow we began the night invincible as ever, and always so impulsive or inspired. Somehow we’re all ending up immobilized together, and always so oblivious and tired. Suddenly it’s all about denial on a bender, and everyone’s so easily impressed. Suddenly it’s all about the easiest surrender, and definitely blacking out the rest, forgetting everything I know and then dissolving into history again. The waves are rolling in again, allmighty and illegal, and I’m already in over my head. The volume is intensive and the impacts are for real and no one is immune who isn’t dead.

Listen to “Blacking Out” by Honey White

When I was younger, I was still insane-I looked like Abel and I felt like Cain. I learned to fear, I learned the art of war-until I guess I couldn’t take it anymore. or else I got too callous-so I grew up and I approached the bomb with automatic cool and heroic calm, methodically defused her right in time, and now our reason overrules our rhyme and interrupts our rhythm. So, why upend the balance? Sometimes I feel okay, and deal, and I give up but then sometimes I feel like tempting fate again, or wreaking havoc every now and then, or risking everything I got to slash and burn up past another point of no return, and leave the rest in ruins. So why upend the balance? Sometimes I feel okay, and deal, and I give up but tonight-tonight I feel like tempting fate again. demo mp3 link

Still up against the way it always will be, and shackled to the way it’s always been. Still opposite the center of attention, and banished to the outside looking in. Forgiven any consequence of any reckless stunts, as long as I do anything to win. Don’t matter if I can’t move like I used to, or even if I think as slow as sin, or even if I don’t know any better, or if a soul is underneath this skin-cause all the broken pieces always snap back into place as long as I do anything to win. Cause I can take a dive, yeah I can take a fall-but as soon as I can take control I’m gonna take it all. So when the worst of here and now is over, and dangerous charades are wearing thin, and aftershocks are right around the corner, and ever after’s itching to begin, I’ll look out on the promised land, the king of all I see-as long as I do anything to win. Oh yeah, I would do anything-it’s been too long, I’m bound to hit the wall. Cause I can take a dive, yeah I can take a fall-but as soon as I can take control I’m gonna take it all. demo mp3 link

Jul 04 2010

Why Blog?

I’ve always identified myself as a writer, even when it was poetry for machines and deadline dreck for newsletters, pamphlets, and flyers.

I like words and written communication better than verbal or theatrical presentations because of the random access you have to the information as a reader.  With a speech, or Radio, or a Play, TV, or Movie the information is under control of the deliverer, not the audience.  It’s inherently a serial exposition, a sales pitch, designed by arrangement and order to lead you from reasonable premises to a predetermined conclusion without allowing you to revisit the path of the argument unless you repeat the experience from scratch.

You may call reading the last chapter to find out ‘who done it’ cheating, I suggest instead that it’s a challenge every Author should be willing to face.  If you can’t make your middle memorable it’s probably better suited for a Short Story than a Novel.

So that’s what’s in it for me.  It’s a form of self expression in a broadly accessible format that’s not really very expensive except in terms of the time it takes to produce the content.

What’s in it for you?

There are 2 parts to this answer.

As a Reader only, you get to bask in my brilliance and wallow in my words and if passive entertainment suits your style I’m grateful for your eyeballs.  By that I mean you’ll get a lot more of me if you can stand it and love or hate it I don’t really give a rat’s ass what you think about me as long as you pay attention.

But the beauty part of a blog is that you can have your voice heard too.  It’s called a Vent Hole for a reason and it accepts both positive and negative feedback.  If your ambition exceeds a Tweet or two you can contribute longer pieces that I will be more than happy to evaluate and feature.  There is nothing that gives me more pleasure than promoting the work of others.

I hope that The Stars Hollow Gazette will develop into a Group Blog where regular participants as well as muse driven Authors will provide a stream of fresh content that will make us a several time a day destination.

Activism

I think that blogs are both more and less powerful platforms than conventionally recognized.  Many people have a nostalgic affection for storming the Bastille and I don’t despise those who are willing to wear no pants.

My legs are not what they once were, though that doesn’t mean I won’t ‘kilt up’ if the occasion calls for it.

I don’t think a failure to summon musket armed militia is an indication of weakness.  The information battlefield has numerous hedgerows, stone walls, and trees to snipe from behind of.  If you think it doesn’t hurt you’re not listening to the howls of outrage from the ego struck elite you ungrateful cur.

My activist brother thinks the most important function of blogs is as a source of information and a historical record, an alternative to the monopolistic media with its competitive barriers.  I think it’s equally as important to amuse and distract.  Your eyeballs are money.  Your passive consent, complicity.

I call you to a life of resistance in the small and easily done things.  Move your money.  Use cash when you can.  Turn off your lights when you leave the room and properly inflate your tires.

If just two people do it, in harmony, they’ll think they’re both faggots and won’t take either of them.

I’ve been called worse things than a stick.  Whom would fardels bear to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all and the native hue of resolution is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought, and enterprise of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.

In thy orisons be all my sins remembered.

Civility

No one has any obligation to treat you any particular way on the internet.

Indeed, one of the things I most despise about our inbred Versailles Village political/media culture is their false politeness and evasion of the truth.

Calling people liars and cowards and idiots is not ‘hate speech’.

Saying that Jew controlled financial, media, and political elites are stealing victory from our brave troopers and using the blood of Christian babies to make Matzoh IS.

If you can’t tell the difference between those things it’s simply useless to talk about subtleties and I won’t bother to do so.

In general however you may attribute to me personally any vice- I claim them all, particularly sloth.  If you have something new and inventive you’d care to share I’m always interested in novelty.  On the other hand you can hardly complain when I return the favor and if I happen to do it bigger and grander than you and you leave impressed…

That’s envy, my dear.  There’s a little bit of envy in the best of us.

Evolution

If you’d bother to learn anything about me at all you’d know I’m not a great believer in it.  It seems to me contrary to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations – then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation – well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. – Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington

But change is only to be expected, and while most of it is merely increasing entropy, intermittently self organizing systems emerge and flourish for a time.

And if you’re lucky you can be a part of it.

Jul 04 2010

Punting the Pundits: Up Dated with Videos

The Sunday morning taking heads are a sure way to start you day off aggravated. About the only one i am really interested in watching this afternoon when it gets in to the high 90’s here in NYC with humidity to match, is Fareed Zakaria GPS. His guest today are Niall Ferguson & Paul Krugman, economists with opposing views.

Harvard economist, Nail Ferguson:

(The) leaders of most of the world’s major economies. They are doing what Harvard historian Niall Ferguson espouses: fighting to get their debt under control and cutting spending before their countries become the next Greece.

NYT’s and Nobel economist, Paul Krugman:

(A) handful of nations who are staying the course and spending. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman says he fears we might already be in the 3rd depression — because governments haven’t been spending enough.

As dry as economics can be, these men make it not just understandable but “entertaining”.

Fareed will also be discussing this stunning statistic: the billion dollar price tag for each Al-Qaeda member.

h/t Elliot @ FDL

Jul 04 2010

Grumpy and out of sorts Stage One

I don’t claim to be the expert Armando is, because I’ve only been watching the Tour since the year before Lance started his streak and naturally my perspective is distorted from that experience.

Bring on the big bore.  Today’s ‘official’ first stage is live now on Vs.

Lance is in 4th place 22 seconds behind.

Stage One-

139 miles of pancake flat Florida.

8:50 start.

Prolog-

Contador / Armstrong head to head on competing teams.  Armstrong’s last Tour win or lose.

Raining in Rotterdam.  Prolog is an individual time trial.  A poor performance or crash could end it before it hardly starts.

Stage 3 Cobblestones.  Lots of wrecks.

Armstrong launches in good conditions.  It’s not where he ends up overall, but in relation to Contador.  Contador next out of the start house.

At halfway Armstrong only 5 seconds behind fastest so far.

Finishes in 3rd.  Now up to Contador- 1 second behind at halfway to Armstrong.

10:27:64.  Five seconds behind.  Advantage Armstrong.

Tomorrow Sea Wind.  Flat.

Ben Stiller interview.  I watch this stuff so you don’t have to.

Lance thinks he’s ahead of last year, didn’t have a collar bone crash.

Jul 04 2010

Welcome to Stars Hollow

The “park” and its benches are open. It is quite a liberal place, very liberal in fact and not ashamed to say so. We hope to give a space to those who want to feel comfortable expressing their views and ideas, a comfortable place for give and take, discussion, agreement and disagreement. None should expect a Utopia, we all have our own views and ideas, there will always be conflicts and opposition.

Besides the current news, this is an environment for creativity, a place to put your “stuff” for others to enjoy. A place for music, art, fiction or just chit chat about what ever moves the moment, a place to stream your thoughts on life, the universe and everything.

I am not the greatest writer. I read a lot. I like to listen and savor. In my profession, it helps to be able to listen to people and hear what they say. It helps try to understand what other people are thinking and consider their perspective. Life is a learning experience and we never stop learning from the world around us and each other.

So let this begin. Please read the FAQ. There are rules and guidelines, as much as I would love to dispense with them, they are part of life on and off the net. I have written some and ek has written others. We wanted them to be clear and uncomplicated. This is an adult site so we also shouldn’t be offended by the occasional use of foul language or an “adult” exchange, it’s allowed. I have a good feeling that most people who will visit and become “residents” won’t need to be told to treat each other with respect.

So welcome, sit on a bench or stretch out on the grass and enjoy the company.

Jun 23 2010

The Stars Hollow Gazette: FAQ

Rules, we all hate them and we would prefer not to have any and just let people post and chat but, sadly, the world of internet blogs is like the real world and we need rules or, if you will, guidelines.

We want people to feel comfortable writing and discussing a myriad of topics and ideas without being personally attacked or character maligned. We encourage lively debate but we should strive to be on topic and point. Be creative, be funny, be sad, write fiction, poetry whatever moves your spirit.

We are a left of the left wing site that has no affiliation with any political party or organization. We welcome discussion of what you think is right and/or wrong with this country or for that matter the world. We welcome all points of view.

There is only one topic here that for now is not allowed. Discussion of the Israel/Palestine situation is off limits for very good reasons

Discussions of I/P almost always instantly degenerate into knee jerk apologies for unconscionable actions on the one hand and anti semitic hate speech on the other.

We reserve the right to review, edit, move, or delete any content submitted by users, in our sole discretion, without notice, including but not limited to the following reasons:

  • Do not post obscene, indecent, hateful, offensive, defamatory, abusive, harassing or profane material. Racist, antisemitic, sexist postings will not be tolerated.

    Foul language is not banned here, we are all adults.

  • Do not post junk mail, pyramid schemes, chain letters or advertisements.

  • Do not engage in personal attacks or stalking. Do not bring arguments from other blog sites here.

  • Vulgar and insulting nicknames will be removed. Nicknames attempting to impersonate other users will be removed.

  • Do not post anyone’s telephone number, street address. or any other personal information. Outing will get you banned immediately.

  • Do not post an e-mail address belonging to another person.

  • Do not post information that encourages criminal activity of any kind, or any statements that may give rise to civil liability.

  • If you post a link to another site, please provide a brief explanation of where the link goes as a courtesy to other users (provided the site is not obviously identified by mouse over URL- ek).

  • Do not attempt to impersonate other users, site administration or any other person.

  • Do not post the same message in multiple locations on the site. Spamming is a no-no.

  • Lively debate and opposing opinions are welcome, but please behave courteously and responsibly.

  • Keep your messages on topic for the particular discussion you are involved in.

  • Do not use multiple account nicknames in one discussion. Do not answer your own posts using another nickname. We will ban your sockpuppets and zombies if you are banned and return with a different UID.

  • These rules are subject to change without warning.

Violations will result in a public warning to stop a specific behavior.

You will be given an opportunity to apologize and/or explain your violation either publicly or by e-mail.

Past warnings will be taken into consideration.

Additional Standards and Practices (addendum by ek hornbeck)

Copyrights

Authors are entitled to control over their own work.

For my part I assert the full protection of my copyrights which are not diminished because I choose to publish pseudonymously.

That does not mean you can’t quote me, or reprint my work with permission.

As for quoting me, there are ‘Fair Use’ exceptions.  If you wish to reprint, permission is easily granted but must be explicitly requested.

In any event I consider it rude not to notify me and link the original.

Each Author who chooses to post here grants me implicit permission to publish their work.  Other than that they retain their own rights and may set any policies they want regarding further dissemination of their pieces.

Likewise I expect Authors who use quotes and reprint articles to show the same courtesy to others.

I hope people find this unconfusing, fair, and equitable.

Standards

Authors are responsible for their own writing and fact checking (where applicable).  Promotion does not constitute endorsement.

We accept pieces of fact, journalism, reporting, history, opinion, special interest features, aggregations, humor, satire, poetry, visual and dramatic art, and fiction which need not be explicitly labeled.  We expect our discerning readership to be able to tell the difference.

Your work may be edited for presentation without notification.  You may edit your own work to correct and expand it, but editing to materially change the content and message of your piece or modify the historic record is expressly forbidden and will result in immediate suspension.

Jun 18 2010

HTML Tips For Essays & Comments

— CONTENTS —

1) Hyperlinks

2) Text Formatting

3) Posting Pictures

4) Wrapping Text around Pictures

5) Posting Videos

    5.1) Centering Videos

    5.2) Shrinking Videos

6) Adjusting Text Display Size

— HYPERLINKS —

There are two ways to put hyperlinks in your articles or comments.

These examples will display your link as blue colored clickable hyperlink text.

1) Bracket method. SoapBlox sites like this one (& Scoop sites like DailyKos) provide an easy shorthand method.

To embed a hyperlink, type both the URL and the text you want to display as a link, enclosed in square brackets, and separate them with at least one space.

&#091https://thestarshollowgazette.com  Stars Hollow Gazette]  

=  Stars Hollow Gazette

&#091https://thestarshollowgazette.com/diary/2/  HTML Tips]  

=  HTML Tips

&#091http://www.CNN.com  CNN]  

=  CNN

2) HTML method. Other sites require HTML tags to display a hyperlink. This method will also work here.  The HTML code begins with the <A HREF=> tag and ends with the </A> tag as shown below.  The URL of the page you are linking to should be included in quotes immediately after <A HREF=>. The text that you want to appear in the link should be between the <A HREF=> and </A> tags.  

<a href=”https://thestarshollowgazette.com”>Stars Hollow Gazette</a>  

=  Stars Hollow Gazette


— TEXT FORMATTING —

To italicize, surround the text you want to italicize with <i> on the left and </i> on the right.

To bold, surround the text you want in bold with <b> on the left and </b> on the right.

To underline, surround the text you want underlined with <u> on the left and </u> on the right.

To blockquote, surround the text you want to blockquote with <blockquote&gt on the left and </blockquote> on the right.

To strike out text with a line through it, surround the text you want to strike out with <strike> on the left and </strike> on the right.

To center text on a page, surround the text you want to center with <center> on the left and </center> on the right.

To create a gray divider line in your article, like the gray lines between the sections of this Formatting Tips page, place an <hr> tag where you want the gray line to appear. The <hr> tag can be used by itself and is one of the few HTML tags that does not require a closing </hr> tag.

To create a line feed use a <br> tag. You can use two <br> tags in succession (<br><br>) to create a blank line, or multiple <br> tags in succession to create multiple blank lines. Like <hr> tags, <br> tags do not require closing </br> tags.

— POSTING PICTURES —



To post a picture in your article, you’ll need the URL (web address) of the picture.  

It’s best practice to upload pictures to Flickr or Photobucket or other image hosts rather than linking directly to a picture on someone else’s site (aka Hot Linking).  The image hosts make it easy to copy & paste the URLs of the pictures into your comment or essay.   Below each picture you will find the HTML code to include with your post.  There will be a box that says “copy/paste this code to your website” or something to that effect.  

Also be aware of copyright issues.   If you use someone else’s picture, provide a link to the page you found it on, if possible.  

The following line of code will display a picture in your article. Replace the URL in this example with the URL of the picture you want to display, and adjust the width to your preference (use “preview” to make adjustments). The height will be auto-calculated proportionally – you do not need to specify it.

<img src="http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/vradul/Hillobama.jpg” width="200" align=”left”>

You can set the “align” parameter to “left” or “right”, to display your picture on either side of the article page.

NOTE: Please don’t post pictures wider than 500px. Images larger than 500px wide may be removed by Site Admins as they may adversely affect some browser displays.

— WRAPPING TEXT AROUND PICTURES —

TO MAKE YOUR ARTICLE TEXT “WRAP”, (display BESIDE and BELOW your picture), begin typing the text of your article immediately following the image code:  

<img src="http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Hillobama.jpg” width="200" align=”left”>START TYPING YOUR ARTICLE TEXT HERE…..

TO CENTER YOUR PICTURE and display your article text BELOW it, REMOVE the “align” parameter from the image code line, and enclose the entire image code line in center tags:

<center><img src="http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/vradul/Hillobama.jpg” width="200"/></center>

START TYPING YOUR ARTICLE TEXT HERE…..


— POSTING VIDEOS —

YouTube videos are the most popular video format but there are others that will allow you to embed as well.  When you find a YouTube video that you’d like to post, obtain the “embed” code for that video by clicking on the YouTube logo at the bottom right corner of the video which will take you to the YouTube page for that video. Or click on “Menu” in the lower right corner of the video and it will display the embed code for you in the video image.

To the right of the video on the YouTube page you’ll see a box with the title “embed” beside it. Copy the code from that box and paste it into your essay or comment.

For example, most if not all of Keith Olbermann’s “Special Comments” on the MSNBC Countdown program are available at YouTube normally within a day or so of broadcast.

There is a search box at YouTube to help you find videos by searching by name or subject or keyword.

Here is Olbermann’s Special Comment on July 03, 2007 calling on George W. Bush to resign:

The “embed” code for that video (available by clicking the YouTube logo) looks like this, and if pasted into your article will display the video aligned against the left margin, as above:

<object width=”425″ height=”350″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-U3nhevWfro”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-U3nhevWfro” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”350″></embed></object>

To post a video in your article centered on the page, simply enclose the “embed” code in center tags (the same as centering pictures, as described above):

<center><object width=”425″ height=”350″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-U3nhevWfro”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-U3nhevWfro” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”350″></embed></object></center>

Posting that code in your article will display the video centered on the page:

You can also shrink videos by removing the height parameter in both places where it appears in the code and setting the width to a smaller amount of pixels.

<center><object width=”250″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-U3nhevWfro”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-U3nhevWfro” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”250″></embed></object></center>

— ADJUSTING TEXT DISPLAY SIZE —

You can make text on screen in your browser display at a larger size any time simply by hitting ‘Ctrl +‘ on your keyboard.

To shrink it hit ‘Ctrl –‘, to return to default ‘Ctrl 0‘.

Jun 12 2010

Under Construction

Welcome to The Stars Hollow Gazette.

As you can see the site is still under construction and during this period we will be limiting registrations.

Please keep us in mind however as we are very excited about this new project.

Load more